Personal Development - St Anne CofE Primary School

What is Personal Development?

‘Encouraging each child to become personally, emotionally, socially and physically effective, to lead healthy, safe and fulfilled lives; To become confident, independent and responsible citizens, making informed and responsible choices and decisions throughout their lives’

Personal Development encompasses many aspects of school life and sits within our curriculum offer and also through other planned activities that sit outside of the National Curriculum expectations. We provide opportunities for pupils to develop skills and knowledge in the following areas:

Leadership- Providing opportunities for children to lead enables them to develop leadership skills and can improve confidence and self-esteem and raise aspirations.

RSE – By learning about relationships, pupils are equipped with the knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to cope with the pressures and challenges of modern society.

RE – By learning about different faiths and beliefs and reflecting on their own beliefs, children can better understand and respect the varied religions in the wider community.

Life Skills – There are many things that children need to be able to know and skills they need to develop to look after themselves effectively at different stages in their life.

Safety – Children need to know how to keep themselves safe physically, mentally and online. They need to learn to understand and manage risk effectively.

PE / Sport / PESSPA – By learning about and taking part in physical activity, children will learn healthy habits for their future lives and are more likely to be fit and well.

British Values – By exploring British Values, children can learn to be a citizen in modern Britain and work towards building communities free from discrimination, intolerance and hate.

Healthy Living – Children need to know why they need to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy and how they can achieve this.

Cultural Capital – By building on children’s cultural capital we are increasing their chances of future success. They will accumulate knowledge, behaviours and skills and will be able to draw upon this cultural awareness to help them navigate the world around them.

PSHE – A comprehensive PSHE curriculum helps children to achieve their full potential by giving them the skills to support their wellbeing and tackle issues that affect their ability to learn. They build personal identities and grow in confidence and self-esteem. They will also learn to identify and understand what influences their decisions and actions.

What do we want to achieve with our Personal Development offer at St Anne’s C of E Primary School?

At St Anne’s, we want our Personal Development offer to ensure that our pupils are respectful and active citizens who are able to play their part and become positively involved in public life as adults. We want our pupils to have a good understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance and to live these values. Character development is also of importance to us so that children reflect wisely, learn eagerly, behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well with others. We aim for our pupils to have confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy. Arming our pupils with the knowledge of how to be physically healthy, to eat healthily and maintain an active lifestyle, including giving ample opportunities for pupils to be active during the school day and through extra-curricular activities is essential. Pupils must also have age-appropriate understanding of healthy relationships through appropriate relationships and sex education.

We intend that our Personal Development offer promotes equality of opportunity so that all pupils can thrive together, understanding that difference is a positive, not a negative, and that individual characteristics make people unique. St Anne’s will also ensure an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all pupils, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Our Christian vision and values encourage us to show compassion and respect and this is instilled in all of our pupils.

Our Personal Development provision ensures that pupils can recognise online and offline risks to their wellbeing and makes them aware of the support available to them. Pupils are also taught to recognise the dangers of inappropriate use of mobile technology and social media.